Broken Hero Needle
by Coppertop992
Summary: Take a moment to think about what the Nurse can do. Give her a few silver coins, and she'll restore every last point of your health in an instant. She can do pretty much the same to herself, or any other NPC. In fact, with her help, you can solo the Moon Lord pretty easily. So now ask yourself, what else could she do if she really wanted to?
1. Chapter 1

_**Impending doom approaches...**_

Not only the ground, but seemingly the whole of reality was shaking. The torch in the armored figure's hand guttered feebly as he flew through the air, though he felt no wind. In fact, despite his high speed, the air felt totally still. Eerily still.

Something was coming. Only moments before, he had felt triumphant. He had defeated the last of those horrible floating masses invading his world, and sent the rest of its minions scurrying back to their lunar home. He thought that would have been the end of it. It had been his mistake, he admitted to himself, attacking those cultists outside the dungeon. Their leader had appeared almost immediately to avenge them, but when he too was dead it became clear that allowing them to continue their activities was vastly preferable to the alternative. Nevertheless, he had defeated the Pillars, and even forged new weapons from their remains. That should have been the end of it.

Right?

Apparently not. He could barely see at all now, as darkness and static clouded his vision. Just managing to touch down at his destination, he looked around at the blurred arena. He had built this structure all himself, assembled to allow him better maneuverability when battling the great monsters that would invade his home from time to time. Most were happy to follow him anywhere he went, which allowed him to pick the terrain: the arena's layers of wooden platforms made dodging their attacks much easier. He cast a glance over to the Nurse's box: He had installed her home here in case he required her services mid-fight. He didn't know how she healed him so rapidly and so often, and he frankly didn't care. As long as she kept charging such low rates for it, she could use whatever magic she wanted to keep him and the townsfolk alive. Usually she was unflappable, even when he came to her in a state which most healers would have described as "brutally murdered". She never tired of recalling the time she had to reattach most of his face. Now, though, she looked worried. She was pacing around the large porch he had built for her, tightly gripping one of the oversized hypodermic needles she sometimes used to do her work. She looked over at him, and through the unnatural gloom he could just make out her furrowed brow. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, however, the static and silence dissipated all at once. For a brief second, he wondered if it had all built up to nothing.

A blinding flash of light and a thunderous, keening screech instantly shattered that illusion as a ripple of force knocked the hero to the ground. Quickly rising, he gaped up at the towering abomination that had just appeared in the air above the arena. It resembled the upper half of a violently bisected man, if that man had had deathly gray, mottled skin; no less than seven eyes (one in the palm of each hand, a giant one in the middle of its forehead, and a cluster of four smaller ones lower on its face); an exposed, glowing green brain; and a mass of tentacles in place of a mouth. Oh, and if the man had stood roughly 600 feet high. The sun, meanwhile, had apparently decided this was entirely above its pay grade: The sky beyond the creature was a pure black void. The squadron of eyes briefly scanned their surroundings, each sweeping in a different direction, until they all settled on the tiny, beetle-like figure standing in the center of the arena.

The hero momentarily reflected on the irony of being dressed like a bug while fighting something so massive, but could not ponder this for long as the eyes in the monster's hands glowed brightly and bolts of energy burst forth from them, hurtling towards the hero. The shell on his back unfolded, revealing already-buzzing wings which carried him out of harm's way just in time: The bolts slammed into the ground, exploding into a pale green mass that fizzled briefly before vanishing. The hero extended his arm, and in his outstretched hand appeared one of his new weapons: a radiant javelin, seemingly composed of pure sunlight. He hurled it at the monster's chest, but to his dismay, its wickedly sharp end bounced off with no effect. As a second javelin appeared to replace it, the monster let out another screech that sounded for all the world like a derisive laugh. The eye in the center of its forehead began to glow now, and only instinct saved the hero as he dodged out of the way of the massive laser beam that scoured the arena floor and missed him by mere inches. As it passed near him, he was hit with a sense of extreme nausea; he shuddered to think what would have happened if the creature's attack had hit its mark. The nurse shouted something to him, but he could not hear her over the monster's new volley of energy bolts. He flew closer to the nurse's box and shouted a request for clarification. She said, "Go for the eyes!" Followed by a panicked "LOOK OUT!" The hero was knocked over by the force of the beam from the creature's central eye slamming into his back. The pain was extreme, not only in his body but also in his mind: visions of all his greatest foes, twisted and butchered but returned from the dead nevertheless to enact their revenge, and over it all, the dying scream of his oldest companion, the Guide...

He regained his senses at a slap from the nurse, who had rolled him onto his back and was standing over him. He looked at her in confusion; hadn't she also been in the path of that ghastly beam? Apparently sensing his unspoken question, she said "Don't worry about me. You have to destroy it!" She made a quick gesture towards his wound, her hand shone with magic for a moment, and he felt the pain vanish almost instantly. He got back to his feet, and looked up into the monster's narrowed eyes. It seemed to be looking not at him, but at the nurse... He had to make sure its attention was occupied. He pulled out the javelin again, but this time aimed for the eye in the center of its head. The weapon sank in deep, remaining lodged in the wound and burning the flesh around it. The monster shrieked in pain, slamming the eye shut, and renewed its attacks against the hero. He tried to dodge the attack, but the bolts of energy were too numerous. A few caught him, hurting, but nowhere near as much as the beam had. He could press through it. He flew up towards the creature's left hand, brandishing the javelin, but before he could plunge it in the creature curled the hand into a fist and punched him out of the sky. The blow did damage, to be certain, but its primary effect was to knock him away from the vulnerable eye. It opened its forehead eye again, but this time it opened wider... And wider... Until the wounded organ left its socket entirely with a sickening _pop_ , leaving a grotesque toothy maw in its place. The eye hovered around this orifice, looking down at the hero in unmistakable fury. The creature's anger and pain manifested themselves as an unstoppable wall of attacks, and it took everything the hero had to evade enough of them to stay in one piece. The assault didn't let up, however, and try as he might, the hero couldn't find any further opportunity to strike at his foe, who now guarded its eyes closely whenever he raised his weapon. The separated eye launched another beam at him, this one slightly smaller than the others, but powerful nevertheless, and he could not move out of the way in time. The pain overwhelmed him, and he fell to the ground, his vision fading...

...The Eye of Cthulhu, somehow emerging from the Wall of Flesh to attack...

...The Destroyer, deploying mechanical Harpies instead of drones, which lifted him into the air, shredded his wings with their talons, and then let him plummet to the ground, where their master was waiting...

...Plantera, opening up its pink bulb to reveal an enraged Dryad as the last of the Jungle was claimed by Corruption...

...The Nurse, needles in hand, fighting in place of the hero against the abomination, absorbing every single one of its mind-shattering hits and barely slowing down...

...The Nurse, again, younger and dressed in pale gold robes but unmistakably her, standing in defiance of four armored figures, purple, green, orange, and blue...

The hero awoke from his disturbed dreams, and blinked up at the bright blue sky. He was lying where he had fallen, in the arena, and the nurse helped him to his feet. He looked around at the devastation. Platforms had fallen everywhere, char marks spattered the ground and stonework, and he seemed to have been lying in a large pool of his own blood. He asked the nurse what had happened after he fell. She hesitated for a moment, then said "I... I'm not sure. It just left. I guess it must have only wanted you. These monsters never do check to make sure their victims are really dead. Makes my job a lot easier," she added with a laugh. The hero frowned. Something about his last two visions had felt... Different. More real. But that was impossible. The Nurse healed, but she couldn't fight that well. And she certainly couldn't survive those blasts, unarmored as she was. But still, it tugged at a corner of his mind, refusing to settle itself. He had never been one for subtlety, so he simply asked her about it. For a split second, he thought he saw a look of shock cross her face, but then it was replaced by mildly amused concern. "They were just dreams. Don't worry too much about them. I can only imagine what those beams did to your mind. I'm just glad none of them hit me."

The hero was not entirely convinced, but he had more important matters to attend to: As terrible as that fight had been, he had never admitted defeat yet. He would not rest until he had proved himself superior to his new most powerful enemy. The death of more presumably innocent cultists was... Regrettable, but it was a necessary means to an end. After all, they didn't really matter, and he _had_ to defeat this Lord of the Moon. He would just have to try again. His wings unfolded, and he began to fly back towards the dungeon. The nurse watched him go with a concerned look, remembering...


	2. Chapter 2

**_Many Years Ago..._**

Carly slipped quietly through the door of the small room, taking care not to wake its sole inhabitant. However, she was pleasantly surprised to see that the greying dwarf in the iron-framed bed seemed quite thoroughly awake and alert. "Morning, Drorn. And how are we feeling today?" The dwarf gave a slightly wheezy chuckle. "Well miss, since y' asked, I'm not feelin' much at all at th' moment. Whether that's your medicine at work or a piece o' rail in m' spine, I can't say." "Probably the medicine," Carly said. "We ran the metal detector all over your back to make sure you weren't at risk of paralysis." Drorn laughed again. "Ohhh-ho-ho, don' you worry lass. I remember. Could y' not have warmed it up at least a bi' first?" Carly rolled her eyes and heaved a big, dramatic sigh. "Yeeees, sir. Your complaint is noted. Is there anything else?" "Well while I'm complainin' an' all-" But he was interrupted by a knock at the door. Carly turned to address the sound, and was greeted by the rather nervous face of a young intern who had joined the staff only recently. "Um, Matron? Sorry to bother you, but we're, well... We're out of painkillers."  
Carly groaned. "Oh, no. Not again. Those taxes are far too much, I've been saying it for months!" She turned back to Drorn. "I'm sorry, I need to go take care of this. I'll be back as soon as possible. Let Tim here help you, assuming he even _can_. We probably won't be able to pay for _bandages_ pretty soon." And with that, she stormed past the intern and out into the hall.

Carly stepped onto the plaza in front of the hospital, and looked out over the city of Redigit. She had often questioned the wisdom of placing a hospital, destination for the sick and injured, at the top of a steep hill. Unfortunately, the inconvenient position of her guild hall was simply another way in which her practice went unappreciated by the Champions of the city. They _had_ seen fit, however, to put it nearby their palace, in the event that they themselves required her services. It was all well and good for them, she thought bitterly. They can _fly_.

The Imperial Palace of the Champions was a towering behemoth, constructed from bricks of silver, gold, and platinum. It was easily the largest building in the city, and the most elaborate. The Champions had built the entire thing themselves, much like many of the city's oldest buildings. Just the glittering front gates probably cost more than the entire medical guild's annual budget... Or they would have, if the Champions hadn't dug them out of the earth and assembled them personally. The guards standing in front of the gates seemed to appreciate none of this. In fact, they looked rather bored. As Carly approached, however, they woke from their stupor and turned to face her. "Halt!" One of them barked. "What business do you have here?"

"I need to speak to the Champions," Carly told him. "The hospital is out of painkillers, these taxes are bankrupting us!"

The guards were unmoved. "By order of the Champions, no-one is to be allowed in until further notice. You may not enter." Carly was beginning to get frustrated. "There are people in pain, something needs to be done. Can't you contact them somehow, and tell them I'm here?"  
The other guard stepped forward to back up his partner, but before he could say anything, a great figure appeared on a balcony far above them. He was a huge man, clad in glowing orange armor. on his back was a massive pair of burning wings, and on his arm, a viciously spiked shield. This was Rexus, the Champion of the Sun. He casually leapt from the balcony, coming to a thunderous landing right in front of Carly.

"What do you want, civilian?" He boomed. "You know the palace is off-limits to all but us and our invited guests." "Pardon me," Carly replied, "I'm the leader of the Medical Guild, and I wanted an audience." She thought she heard Rexus give an exasperated sigh. "Very well," he said, "You have one. What is it that you want?" "The taxes on my guild are too high, Your Radiance." Carly began. She was not fond of bowing and scraping, but she was willing to do nearly anything for the sake of her patients. Rexus, however, was unimpressed. "That's none of my concern," he said, apparently preparing to take off again. "Take it up with the Tax Collector." "I tried," Carly pleaded. "He wouldn't budge." It was true; a few days prior, she had attempted the fruitless task of warming the Tax Collector's icy heart. He had told her that he was not a charity, and that if she needed money so badly then she should "go kill a slime!" Before kicking her out of his office. "Well then, he has already make his decision!" Carly could tell the Champion was beginning to lose his patience, but she decided to try once more. "But what about the sick, and the injured?"  
Rexus, it seemed, had had enough. "THEY ARE NONE OF MY CONCERN!" He roared, stomping towards her. His voice reverberated around the street, causing the guards to jump, and many of the people walking by to either stop and stare, or begin walking briskly away. "If you need the taxes lowered SO DAMNED BADLY, try getting those GREEDY, **GOOD-FOR-NOTHING** **_GOBLINS_** to give a decent reforging discount to the CREATORS OF THE _CITY THEY LIVE IN_!" He was so close to her now that Carly feared the heat from his armor would burn her skin. "But until you can accomplish _that_ impossible task, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Carly did not need to be told twice. She hurried away down the street, but she did not go back to the hospital. Shouted in anger though they were, she heeded Rexus's words. Perhaps if she could reduce the Champions' expenses (and get the attention of one who was a tad more level-headed next time), they would be more open to the idea of lowering the taxes. Once she had reached a safe distance from the palace, she slowed her pace and started making her way to the headquarters of the Tinkers' Guild.


End file.
